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GOP on defensive over Dem votes on policies geared toward women

House Republicans are playing defense as Democrats hold votes on a series of measures that could make it more difficult for the GOP to recoup losses with female voters in 2018.

The House on Wednesday approved the Paycheck Fairness Act, which strengthens penalties against employers that discriminate against female workers with lower wages.

And this week, the House is set to vote on a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) after it expired in late December.

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Both measures have been top priorities for Democrats since they took over the House majority, which was fueled in large part by female voters. A Democratic aide said that leaders wanted to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act ahead of Equal Pay Day on April 2 and to bring up the VAWA renewal soon after it advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.

But the two bills also give Democrats an opportunity to cast the GOP as unfriendly to women on both issues.

"It's taken a long time. It's been hard to break through on this. But we are in a moment when the issue and the environment have collided in order to make it very much central to the public discourse today," DeLauro said.

Republicans are worried about the drop in support among suburban and female voters that fueled Democrats' midterm victory last November.

Republicans are also seeing a precipitous drop in support from suburban voters. Those voters split evenly between Republicans and Democrats in 2018, after Trump won them by two points in 2016. By comparison, suburban voters favored Republicans by 12 points in the previous midterm elections in 2014.

Trump's approval rating among women isn't helping Republicans. A poll from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal earlier this month found that 61 percent of women disapproved of Trump.

Republicans are also sensitive to the fact that their House conference is mostly male.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would require employers to prove pay disparities aren't rooted in gender discrimination and are "consistent with business necessity." It also would ban employers from asking prospective employees about salary history or retaliating against workers who discuss wages, require that businesses with 100 or more employees report annual compensation data, and authorize grants for negotiation skills training programs.

According to a summary from Stefanik's office, her proposal would ensure workers could discuss compensation with colleagues while giving employers the ability to set "reasonable limitations" on the time and location of that activity. It also creates a "self-audit" to encourage businesses to conduct pay analyses on their own and, similar to the Democrats' bill, authorizes a grant program for negotiation education.

VAWA expired when the government shutdown began in December. But lawmakers didn't include an extension in a spending bill to reopen the government a month later.

Stefanik also put forward "clean" legislation to extend current VAWA policy for one year, which is backed by House GOP leaders.

"She's playing political games. That's why she expired it," McCarthy said of Pelosi.

Democrats are seeking changes to current law in their VAWA reauthorization proposal, including a provision to tighten gun restrictions for domestic abusers.

Existing law prohibits people convicted of domestic violence offenses against their spouses or family members from owning guns. But Democrats' VAWA bill would extend it to people who abuse their dating partners to close the so-called "boyfriend loophole."

The NRA has come out in opposition to the legislation. National Journal first reported this week that the group's announcement came after Republicans discussed enlisting its backup to help offer cover for opposing the VAWA renewal.

Democrats have seized on the NRA's opposition as a choice between protecting domestic violence survivors and the gun rights of abusers.

"There's very discrete provisions that relate to protecting women's safety. And they're against it," Pelosi said of Republicans on Thursday.

But as a result of GOP opposition to House Democrats' VAWA reauthorization, the measure is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, leaving its renewal in limbo.

"Nothing that's passing in the House is going to be taken up in the Senate that's these gotcha bills," Foxx said.